LOL. I love the city, but I only have one shop scheduled in downtown so far. I figure, if I can't find any more, I'll go get my free luncheon and then write in Millenium Park or play at Navy Pier for a bit. I also applied for some of the museums.

I think the real question is...is how much time can you commit? It is easy to find the shops, and even perform most of them. The problem I run into is doing the reports. Once my family comes home about 5:30, I have to stop MS work and move onto dinner and those other things. Once everyone goes to bed...by 10:00, I can finish entering in what I do not have finished...but, I find that a bummer. I too am tired and the last thing I want to do is sit typing. But, it has to be done.
For me, and I have been full time for 5 months, I get up at 5:30 and get breakfast and lunches made for the fam.
Then I spend about 2-3 hours scheduling jobs (or reading forum's). I like to be out on the road by 10...and back by 3. This gives me realistically 4 jobs a day.
With experience comes better pay, and you learn what to look for in jobs. My goal is to make 50.00 day.
Some days I make more...but, rarely less.
This gives me enough to make a little extra spending money, and allows me to cook quality food and be a good mom.

So far, I've been dedicating two afternoons a week to shops, but I sprinkle in good ones (dinners or short retail ones) throughout the week. I freelance write for my other job, so I have a 100% flexible schedule.

chigirl777 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Inkling: sorry you're leaving Chicago, it's a
> great town, isn't it?? If it's convenient for
> you, why don't you go on ahead and leave me all
> your MSC contacts...

I'll take all of the ones in the Western Suburbs!

SandiAigo:

I think you'd have some competition... even the Arch shops out here in NWI seem to go fast!

I work around Inland Empire in Southern California. I usually shop anywhere from 6 to 8 assignments per day and try to work 6 - 7 days per week. I am usually getting anywhere from 1200 to 1600 / month before expense reimbursement, but a good chunk of it is for gas. =( So if I make the math its around 1000 to 1300 per month.

Carlos.

I work 1-2 days a week (usually 1 day unless my gas route is close to deadline) and I do 60-80 shops per month.

cabazan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I work around Inland Empire in Southern
> California. I usually shop anywhere from 6 to 8
> assignments per day and try to work 6 - 7 days per
> week. I am usually getting anywhere from 1200 to
> 1600 / month before expense reimbursement, but a
> good chunk of it is for gas. =( So if I make the
> math its around 1000 to 1300 per month.
>
> Carlos.


Like a boss! Any way you could get a transit pass to save on the gas? I do that cause I have to get a pass anyway and it's already in the budget. It's so nice not having to pay gas prices although I would be able to do a few more shops if I had access to a car.

Hey Dixie,

Up where I live there is no public transportation - no subawys, no buses, no trolleys. Either you drive or stay at home. =(

That's life in this part of California.

All best!

C

dixiewhiskey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So far this month, I have done 26 shops which
> amounts to a little over $700. Not bad for my
> first month.. Not every month will be like this
> I'm sure


Dixie, if you've made $700 in fees for 26 shops in your first month, that's amazing!!!! I've done 24 shops so far and have only made $280 in fees. What area do you shop? I'm in Montreal, Canada btw.

MilessMum Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> dixiewhiskey Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > So far this month, I have done 26 shops which
> > amounts to a little over $700. Not bad for my
> > first month.. Not every month will be like this
> > I'm sure
>
>
> Dixie, if you've made $700 in fees for 26 shops in
> your first month, that's amazing!!!! I've done 24
> shops so far and have only made $280 in fees. What
> area do you shop? I'm in Montreal, Canada btw.

I shop in Toronto mainly, sometimes a little east or west of the area depending on where I am for my full-time job $280 is still great. It seemed like at first that I would only make $100 bucks tops cause jobs in GTA seemed scarce! Good to read that other folks here are making over that - do you generally make $200 or more per month? Are there slow times? I think I need to slow down a bit this coming week cause I feel a bit overwhelmed lol!

dixiewhiskey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> MilessMum Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > dixiewhiskey Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > So far this month, I have done 26 shops which
> > > amounts to a little over $700. Not bad for my
> > > first month.. Not every month will be like
> this
> > > I'm sure
> >
> >
> > Dixie, if you've made $700 in fees for 26 shops
> in
> > your first month, that's amazing!!!! I've done
> 24
> > shops so far and have only made $280 in fees.
> What
> > area do you shop? I'm in Montreal, Canada btw.
>
> I shop in Toronto mainly, sometimes a little east
> or west of the area depending on where I am for my
> full-time job $280 is still great. It seemed
> like at first that I would only make $100 bucks
> tops cause jobs in GTA seemed scarce! Good to read
> that other folks here are making over that - do
> you generally make $200 or more per month? Are
> there slow times? I think I need to slow down a
> bit this coming week cause I feel a bit
> overwhelmed lol!

I started up in March, but really got into it around May /June. I had my son in March, so didn't do much in the beginning. I think you can definitely make a couple hundred dollars in a month, especially in an urban area like Toronto. I have yet to come across a slow month, but I have noticed, at least for me, the two middle weeks in a month are slow. Maybe the more seasoned shoppers can chime in here.

There are few patterns. In general a slew of jobs are posted for the beginning of the month so someone can keep busy if they want to take them at the starting fee. Yes, the third week of the month does tend to slow down before picking up the last week when shops either need to be redone or have been canceled, etc. Obviously that only applies to clients who order shops monthly. It will be different if the assignments are only completed quarterly.

I do about 20 to 25 jobs a month, l made little over $4000 this year l hope to go over.$8000 this

Year.

How do you find shops other than the internet and how do you know which are good companies to work with. Are you paying taxes or are taxes taken out.

dlangley Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How do you find shops other than the internet and
> how do you know which are good companies to work
> with. Are you paying taxes or are taxes taken
> out.


1. You probably need internet. Companies e-mail you when jobs in your area are posted.
2. A list of 200 legitimate companies is posted below, the blue link at the bottom of the page, Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies.
3. Taxes are not taken out. You are responsible for paying taxes on all your earnings.

To find out how things work, invest a little time in researching in the New Mystery Shopper area. There is information available free on all aspects of mystery shopping.

I am a full time shopper and need to average $3000 a month to meet expenses. I do about 200 shops a month most month but have done as many as 450. I live in a rural area but am within a 90 minute drive of several urban areas. I let me schedulers know when I will be in what areas and they help me out with setting routes (I shop 8 states). They know I will get the work done so I get a bit of flexibility with the due dates. I shop for over 65 companies but do most of my work with 6 or 7. I use the others as fill in shops and occasionally get handed a route from one of my more minor contributors.

When I started it was $8 and $17 shops. Now I rarely take one that does not pay at least $15 unless it is food that is reimbursed. I get grocery shops when I need to stock up and do several stores in an area to get paid for them as well. With some organization, you can make a decent living.

Most of my car expenses are covered as I do oil change shops and lots of gas stations.

This was kind of a fun excercise to count the number of shops. Last month was kind of a dud because I took a week off to travel and visit family and another few days here and there to deal with a family member's health issues. Still though 114 done in July.

I do 30-50 a month.

This is my job. Last month I did 480 shops give or take a few. Most months I do about 350-400.

Wow that's a lot that mean's your doing an average of 15 or 16 a day.

15 shops a day sounds really rough!

I can't imagine doing 15-16 shops in one day! My max is 5/day.

I will be doing 13 shops this weekend. After expenses, I will net $350. It's all in how you plan, where you live, and developing relationships with schedulers.

I do anywhere from 100-200 shops a month. I bring in on average $2000. MS is a part-time job for me that I use to blend in with my freelance writing, photography and consulting.

Initially I would only do one or two shops while on the road. It provided me with immediate receipts/income versus writing and photography which may not net income for months. For example, I might photograph San Francisio one year but not use the photos until nine months later. I had expenses photographing San Francisco in the tax year but no income. I wanted to write off the travel and not look like I was commiting fraud. I wanted to show cause/effect if questioned by the IRS. Mystery shopping provides me with that. My goal may be to photograph San Francisco but the food shops there justify some of the expenses of getting and staying there for a couple of day.s

After a while I discovered that if I planned it right, I could make money at MS. So now my shops fall into one of three categories: pleasure, travel justification or make money.

The money is to be made at the end of the month when companies are desperate to get projects completed. Today I had three different companies contact me to shop the same Arches. I took the first one at a $40 bonus. I wish I had held out. I ended up doing a different Arches for the third company at $60. So I get $100 plus reimbursements to eat a couple of burgers.

Learn to work smart.

inkling_shopper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SandiAigo:
>
> I think you'd have some competition... even the
> Arch shops out here in NWI seem to go fast!

Tons of competition! It's gotten really tough recently. I've heard that people are
coming into my town from a distance. Don't know why--they're the same damn
shops as in their towns!